Chapter 12
Sorry for slow updating. You can blame me though I have Rasbergers. (Don't ask it's something retarded that my boyfriend and me came up with.) I recently discovered something totally awesome. I was reading the first volume of Bleach, (which the school librarian likes thanks to me suggesting that she read it,) and I was looking at the little sketches of Rukia and Ichigo at the back of the book, and I learned that Ichigo liking Shakespeare was… Canon! Wow! .-. I dunno I was pretty surprised… thought I'd share. :3
God… I have no idea what I was thinking when I added in Tommie here, I think I had a big old plot planned out to happen when they were camping or something and it involved Tommie or something…. ._. Now… I have no fucking clue what to do with him… :O I'm kinda making this up as I go along too. There isn't much of a plot with this at all… .-. I can't think of anything. This is a bad habit of mine, I jump into writing without a plot in mind so all I manage to get down is some mindless babbling about the events of a day or something.
My OCD always kicks in when I'm writing, so I don't know if this chapter's good or not because every five minutes I walked around the house checking if all the clocks were set at the exact same times, or if all the mirrors in my room were straight, or something. I got up to wash my hands like every thirty minutes too. I'm too tired now to re read the entire thing so I just kinda skim read. .-. Not even.
Therefore, I might keep up with this camping bullshit for another chapter.
Note: *in a ghetto accent* Hey y'all dis yo author tellin y'all that you BEST be readin dat author's note cuz honey, it be tellin ya lots.
Now, for the story.
"Hey…" Uryu woke up to Ichigo poking and prodding him. "Quit touching me." He sat up and stared at Ichigo, who had an unmistakeable look of confusion on his face. "What's wrong?"
"Something weird happened last night."
Now Uryu looked confused, but he then remembered that the shinigami came and replaced Ichigo's memory. He wasn't sure what they changed it to; in fact, no one was sure.
"What happened?"
"You don't remember?"
"No." Uryu felt Ichigo hug him.
"It was awful…" Ichigo squeezed him.
"Can you tell me what happened?" Uryu was having a hard time breathing; it made him feel a little light headed.
"I pushed you and you fell and hurt your knee really bad…" Ichigo looked at the bandage on Uryu's knee.
Uryu looked there too. It seemed that the Shinigami were getting better, the memories that they replaced them to were actually making sense. A long time ago, he knew of a poor old lady that had to be taken to a mental institution because her memory of a hollow attack was replaced by a startlingly graphic and detailed account of her apartment building being suddenly overtaken by cockroaches the size of Danny DeVito. To this day, she still has nightmares. "Why'd you push me?"
"I dunno…" Ichigo still hadn't let go of Uryu. "I was really mad at you."
Uryu sighed. "Well I'm not mad at you."
"Really?"
"Really." Uryu hoped that Ichigo got over this soon, but he wasn't about to try and convince Ichigo it was a dream, he had no idea what effect that could have because the Shinigami's techniques were still a mystery to him. He felt guilty, but he was curious to see what Ichigo was going to do about it. "What time is it?"
"About 9:30." Ichigo said into Uryu's neck. He was happy that Uryu forgave him, but he didn't forgive himself.
"Can I go back to sleep?" Uryu asked.
"Well I guess you can, if you want cereal for breakfast instead of Yuzu's cooking." Ichigo said. "She made eggs and bacon."
Uryu got dressed quickly and followed Ichigo to the picnic table, where they ate a nice warm breakfast that Yuzu made. Isshin and the girls soon after went to the lake for a swim, which left Uryu, Tommie, and Ichigo alone to themselves again.
Uryu was still nibbling at his food, not taking note of Tommie staring at him.
"D'you always eat like that? Your eggs are probably getting cold." Tommie remarked.
Uryu nodded.
"Ya gotta quit that. People are gonna start asking weird questions." Tommie returned to his book after taking a piece of Uryu's bacon.
"I think so too." Ichigo took a piece of Uryu's bacon too, leaving Uryu a piece to himself. "You'll never finish like that."
Uryu nodded again, finishing off his scrambled eggs long after Yuzu put them on his plate. He started on his last piece of bacon.
Tommie looked up from his book about five minutes later, frustrated when he saw Uryu just finishing up his bacon. "You're weird…"
Uryu smiled weakly. "Well I guess I've been called worse."
"Wouldn't doubt it…" Tommie muttered.
Uryu tossed his plate in the garbage and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. Ichigo looked at what he was wearing as he walked back.
"Aren't you really warm?" Ichigo asked. It was hot out, even if it was morning, and it'd probably get even hotter; despite this, Uryu was wearing dark wash jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt.
"Nope." Uryu shook his head and sat down beside Ichigo,
Tommie wondered why he felt jealous when he saw Uryu kiss Ichigo's cheek. Was it that Ichigo's facial hair was coming in quicker than his own, or was it that he liked Uryu? Deciding it was the first one, (it was easier to come to terms with,) he skulked back to his tent and finished the second book he read since arriving at the campsite.
"Do you wanna go swimming today?" Ichigo asked.
"If I can…" Uryu looked at his knee, it looked like it'd bled a little through the bandage. It really was a nasty scrape. He was about to complain about it, but he then thought about how Ichigo thought it was his fault. Uryu knew he'd have to be careful about the whole thing.
"I'm so sorry…" Ichigo felt guilt course through his body.
Uryu kissed Ichigo's lips and then looked back to the ground.
They sat there in silence, sometimes Uryu could hear Tommie flipping the page of his book.
"It's hot out today." Uryu said, grabbing a water bottle for him and Ichigo. There wasn't even a breeze out that day.
"Too hot." Ichigo muttered.
"Yeah, sorta." Uryu sighed. He guessed he really did dress too heavily for the day, "I'm gonna get changed."
Ichigo watched Uryu go into the tent. He waited for a bit but he eventually got curious and followed, wondering why Uryu was taking so long to get dressed.
"Uryu? Whatcha doin'?" Ichigo poked his head into the tent to see Uryu was sleeping again. From what Ichigo could see, Uryu did manage to get into a short-sleeved shirt before passing out again.
Uryu muttered something in his sleep and turned onto his stomach, clutching onto the blanket and drawing it in closer to himself. "Yeah, I'll take another scone… yep… That tastes like shit," He was sleep talking again, this time in a funny British accent.
"Well then…" Ichigo sat down beside Uryu's head and ran his hand through his silky hair.
"No I don't want another scone… Nuh uh… Nope." Uryu started pushing something away in his sleep. "What the fuck did I just say?"
Ichigo sat there listening for a while, apparently, Uryu was dreaming about being force-fed scones, which he guessed was some sort of food.
"Get away from me!" Uryu started kicking in his sleep too. "I said I don't want any more fucking scones!"
Ichigo wondered why Uryu was swearing so much but didn't question it because it was pretty funny to hear someone like Uryu swear in a British accent. Still, Ichigo eventually wound up waking up Uryu, partially because he was starting to squirm a lot and looked genuinely scared, and partially because he wasn't sure what a scone was and was curious.
"Uryu."
"Yeah?"
"Have you been drinking?"
"No."
"What's a scone?"
"I have no idea."
"You were talking in your sleep about them. In a British accent." Ichigo started petting Uryu's hair in his sleep.
"Wow." Uryu sat up a little in Ichigo's lap. "What the hell is a scone…"
Ichigo shrugged and resumed running his fingers through Uryu's bangs. "I'll look it up as soon as I get service on my phone." Due to the lack of cell service in the campsite, Ichigo couldn't text, talk, check his facebook, etc. so his phone was reduced to a time-teller, and sometimes a Tetris console. This bothered him; he rarely went a few hours without at least checking his messages or facebook.
"You're always glued to that thing…" Uryu said quietly.
"When you get a phone I'm sure you'll understand." Ichigo looked off.
Uryu wasn't sure he wanted one. Everywhere he turned there was someone zoning out on their phone, looking like a zombie. He thought they looked pretty dumb.
"I could probably put an old one of mine on a plan for you, so you can text people. Or something…" Ichigo muttered the last part.
"I can barely type on a computer Ichigo…" Uryu smiled weakly. "I think a cell phone would just make me feel stupid."
"You'll figure it out." Ichigo moved his hand to Uryu's back and ran his hand up and down. "You're definitely not stupid."
Uryu looked at him upside down from where he was lying. "I guess." He yawned quietly and looked at the book that was peeking out from Ichigo's backpack.
Ichigo looked where Uryu was looking. "Do you want me to read to you?"
Uryu nodded and crawled over, looking for something nice that he could listen to. He never really had anyone besides Ichigo to read to him before.
Ichigo watched Uryu's eyes scan carefully over the books that he brought to camp. He wasn't sure if Uryu liked them or not, his face was pretty blank.
"How about this one?" Uryu handed Ichigo Moby Dick.
"Hm. Never read it before…" Ichigo looked over the cover, which was just grey with a whale on the front. There wasn't any blurb on the back to tell him what the book was about, and he hadn't even read it before, but he found it in the bookshelf so he packed it.
"It's really good…" Uryu cuddled up to Ichigo. "But it's pretty long, and the text is small."
Ichigo quickly flipped through the pages, there weren't many illustrations either. "Well I guess we should get started now then, if we're ever to finish it."
Uryu smiled and listened to Ichigo read him the beginning of the tale of Ishmael. They only got through one chapter before they could hear the voices of Isshin and their sisters.
Uryu poked his head out of the tent to see Isshin, Karin, and Yuzu bringing out some food for lunch from the coolers.
"Hi Uryu!" Yuzu said when she saw Uryu's head poking out of the tent. "We just came back to get some lunch, and then we're going back to the lake, you and Ichigo should come this time."
Uryu nodded and said they would, even though he wasn't particularly interested in wading around lake water, it was probably cold and didn't strike him as much of a good time.
Ichigo carefully folded the corner of the page they were on.
"Is swimming in the lake fun?" Uryu asked.
"Sometimes… Kinda depends on the weather. The water isn't cold, and there isn't much seaweed here."
Uryu nodded. He watched Ichigo get into some swimming trunks and decided to follow suit, (no pun intended.)
Ichigo looked over Uryu's body and saw that he was scratched up pretty bad, and another wave of guilt hit him hard. "Oh Uryu…" He walked over and squished Uryu in his arms. He knew he was being emotional but he didn't like to see Uryu with scratches on him.
Uryu realized what Ichigo was sad about, and he felt guilty too. He hugged Ichigo back, having a hard time standing up straight in the tent.
"I can't believe you're not mad at me…" Ichigo gave him a last tight squish in his arms before letting go.
Uryu sighed and stared at his toes. "Well you should start…" He said quietly and walked out of the tent, knowing well that it was his own fault that he was hurt, and he was hiding from the truth, even if it really was for Ichigo's own good. (He wasn't sure that that was true anymore either.)
Ichigo followed Uryu out. Now he felt like he was annoying Uryu, and that bothered him even more.
They helped Isshin, Yuzu, and Karin get the food ready to go to the lake, and Tommie even helped. Then, they all ate some sandwiches and fruit. Isshin and the girls ran off, and again, Uryu was left sitting with Ichigo and Tommie.
He suddenly felt really self-conscious, Tommie and Ichigo both seemed like body builders standing next to him; he was small and somewhat scrawny. Sighing, he wrapped his fingers around Ichigo's and leaned on him.
Ichigo threw rocks at seagulls, not really trying to hit them; he was bored out of his mind. He forgot to bring his books and there wasn't really much to do here other than go swimming, and he didn't really feel like doing that either. He felt Uryu's breath on his shoulder, it bothered him a little, but he didn't want to push Uryu away.
Tommie looked at the two of them holding hands and wasn't sure what to think. He hadn't noticed them cuddling before this. He sort of guessed that Uryu was gay a few minutes after meeting him, but Ichigo was a bit of a shock. The two of them together though, was what really surprised him. Uryu seemed bitchy, too perfect for Ichigo to really relate with, but there was also something about him that was quite charming. Tommie realized that he was staring at Uryu and shuddered a little when he saw Ichigo glaring at him. He really was scary.
Uryu took no notice of either of them, (they were glaring at each other,) he was watching the seagulls flap around.
Yawning, he stood up and walked to the water's edge, feeling the water, (not too hot, not too cold,) lick his toes. He walked in; the water really was nice. He could hear Ichigo and Tommie bickering about something, but didn't bother to listen to why. He felt little goosebumps go up his arms as he walked further and further in the water. It was up to his scraped up knees now; he turned around to see Ichigo was following him into the water.
Tommie yawned and decided to wade in too, swimming around for a little while. He looked over to the couple, who were splashing around a little. It looked like they were trying to see who could swim faster, and of course, Ichigo was winning. Tommie rolled his eyes, Ichigo was always so good at everything.
Uryu never really went swimming around often, when he was little he sometimes went to the public pool with his grandfather, but not enough to get good at swimming, so he sort of just followed Ichigo around until Ichigo got bored and returned to the shore. As soon as Uryu was close enough to the shore to touch the bottom with his toes he got around much faster; he really wasn't good at swimming.
It was around three that Ichigo and Uryu decided to go back to the campsite, they were done swimming around and chatting on the beach. Isshin, Yuzu and Karin still wanted to stay, and they didn't really care about what Tommie was doing.
"Your posture sucks…" Uryu said when he saw Ichigo slouching over the fire. "Your back is gonna hurt really bad when you're older."
"Well it feels pretty good now…" Ichigo sat up, he heard his back crack loudly. "And now it feels even better. Magic."
Uryu rolled his eyes. "I'm hungry."
"I never thought I'd hear that from you." Ichigo teased, but didn't get much of a reaction from Uryu, who just stared at him, looking somewhat irritated. "Make yourself something to eat then."
"What can I have to eat though?" Uryu asked shyly. He'd been with the Kurosaki family for a long time now, but he never really went into their fridge for something to eat, and when he did he was normally just helping with dinner.
"Find something…" Ichigo yawned.
Uryu looked in the cooler and found some marshmallows, and ate a great deal of them before he looked a little sick.
"Was that really the best thing you could find?" Ichigo asked when he saw Uryu throwing up behind a bush.
"They seemed like a good idea at the time…" Uryu muttered. He was still holding the mostly-eaten pack of marshmallows. He spat a few times and then grabbed a bottle of water to wash the nasty taste of vomit out of his mouth.
"When I said something to eat I didn't mean garbage…" He kissed Uryu's head. "You're so dumb sometimes…"
Uryu smiled weakly, feeling stupid. He did love marshmallows, and pretty much any other candy he could get his hands on, but they really didn't agree with his stomach. He did finish off the bag before long though, even though Ichigo advised against it.
"So you're just picky? That's why you don't eat much?" Ichigo asked, noticing Uryu throwing out the bag.
"I don't know." Uryu shrugged Ichigo off and went to the tent. "I'm getting changed."
Ichigo followed Uryu into the tent, and changed into his normal clothes again. He looked at Uryu, who was wearing an old shirt of his; it was light blue and fit him nicely, hugging him in some places and loose in others; he really did look hot in it.
Ichigo looked down at what he was wearing, he never really thought about what he was putting on as he was putting it on, resulting in some rather interesting outfits on the weekends. But, he did look okay.
"Your socks don't match…" Uryu said quietly.
"Whatever." Ichigo smiled when he looked down at his socks, one was striped and the other had polka dots.
Uryu smiled too and walked out of the tent after Ichigo to see Tommie was already back in the campsite.
"Did you guys actually manage to eat an entire bag of marshmallows?" Tommie asked, noticing that one of the four bags of marshmallows that they brought was gone without a trace.
"That was Uryu." Ichigo said quickly.
Uryu nodded, his cheeks a little red. "I was sort of hungry."
Tommie stared at Uryu blankly. From what he saw that morning, Uryu didn't seem to be much of an eater, much less someone that'd burn through a whole bag of marshmallows just because he was 'sort of hungry.' "Did you throw up?"
"Teeny bit…" Uryu mumbled.
"I wouldn't doubt it." Tommie got up and walked over to the fire, poking it with a stick. "Well we have lots left anyways, I don't know why we brought so many."
Uryu felt Ichigo tugging on his arm.
"Can we go for a quick walk?" Ichigo asked quietly.
Uryu nodded and held Ichigo's hand as they walked out of the campsite; Ichigo slowed down as soon as they got out of the campsite.
"Why are we going for a walk?" Uryu asked.
"Because I just wanted to go for a walk." Ichigo squeezed Uryu's hand.
"So Tommie's actually pretty cool." Uryu said.
"I think he likes you. Which is weird, I think he's straight." Ichigo said.
Uryu noticed his brow furrow. "Well that's not so bad… He could hate my guts or something." He said calmly. He noticed a little jealousy in Ichigo's voice.
Ichigo nodded. He realized he was getting really attached to Uryu, and as he realized this he loosened his grip on Uryu's hand.
Uryu kept walking at Ichigo's side, noticing a bit of a change in Ichigo's demeanor. He didn't say anything but he could feel Ichigo distancing himself a little.
"So, did you like swimming?" Ichigo asked after a little while of quiet.
"Yeah, it was pretty fun…" Uryu said. Ichigo normally didn't try to make small talk, and it made him wonder why exactly Ichigo didn't want to just stay at the campsite.
"I was kinda worried about you, you can't swim very well." Ichigo said sheepishly. He didn't remember what exactly he wanted to talk about with Uryu when he dragged him out there.
"Yeah, I can barely keep my head above water." Uryu stared off.
Ichigo looked at Uryu, who had a blank look on his face. He didn't look like he was interested in walking around; he actually seemed tired and bored.
"Do you wanna find somewhere to sit?" Ichigo asked.
Uryu nodded without a word, and followed Ichigo around until they found an old hiking trail sign; it was abandoned and looked like no one had been there for a while.
"Looks kinda… scary." Uryu said. When he looked down the trail all he could see were birch trees stretching out in every direction.
"Are you gonna come with me?" Ichigo asked.
Uryu nodded, guessing he wouldn't have much of a choice. He walked behind Ichigo down the trail; there weren't many interesting things to see on the trail at first. Sometimes there were little blackbirds, rabbits, skunks, and other typical animals you see every day.
"There isn't much here…" Uryu said. The forest was grey, there weren't many leaves on the trees and it seemed somewhat marshy. He could see a lake off in the distance.
"There are little turtles in that lake." Ichigo started walking a little faster. Uryu picked up his pace as well.
They eventually got to the lake, which was boggy and dark brown in colour.
Uryu watched Ichigo wading into the lake. "I hope there aren't any crayfish in there."
Ichigo felt something touch his toe so he reached in the lake and retrieved a little turtle, no bigger than a saucer.
Uryu walked over and Ichigo passed him the little turtle. He looked at the little creature for a while, and Ichigo picked up another. They were both a pale green with yellowish brown patterns on their shells. They didn't seem to mind having people pick them up, Uryu could even kiss its head.
"I wonder if it's a girl or a boy." Uryu said.
"This one seems like a guy." Ichigo looked at the one that he was holding. "But I dunno."
"Meh… I'll just say he's a boy." Uryu said, holding the turtle in his arms. "Are they just babies now?" Uryu asked.
"I dunno. We should put them back through, just in case we mess with nature or something." Ichigo said flatly, and watched Uryu return the little turtle to the pond, and then did the same himself.
They walked through the forest for a long time, sometimes chatting, sometimes holding hands, never straying far from the trail until they got to the other side.
They were now surrounded by a bunch of campsites that Ichigo didn't recognize at all; they were all overgrown and some were hardly recognizable.
"Well that was a nice walk. Now, where are we exactly?" Uryu asked.
Ichigo looked all around him. There was an endless expanse of campsites that he didn't recognize surrounding the two of them, and he had no idea where they were.
"Good question…"
Dun dun dun!
*AN: how do you like my attempt at being witty?
